Plans for a massive database snooping on the entire population were condemned yesterday as a ‘step too far for the British way of life’.In an Orwellian move, the Home Office is proposing to detail every phone call, e-mail, text message, internet search and online purchase in the fight against terrorism and other serious crime.But the privacy watchdog, Information Commissioner Richard Thomas, warned that the public’s traditional freedoms were under grave threat from creeping state surveillance.

15 jul. 2008

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. watch list of terrorism suspects has passed 1 million records, corresponding to about 400,000 people, and a leading civil rights group said on Monday the number was far too high to be effective. The Bush administration disagreed and called the list one of the most effective tools implemented after the September 11 hijacked plane attacks -- when a federal "no-fly" list contained just 16 people considered threats to aviation. http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USN1447675120080714

10 jul. 2008

7 jul. 2008

"We haven't had an attack in five years. The perception of the threat is so low in this society that it's not surprising that the behavior pattern reflects a low threat assessment. The same thing's in Europe, there's a low threat perception. The correction for that, I suppose, is an attack. And when that happens, then everyone gets energized for another [inaudible] and it's a shame we don't have the maturity to recognize the seriousness of the threats...the lethality, the carnage, that can be imposed on our society is so real and so present and so serious that you'd think we'd be able to understand it, but as a society, the longer you get away from 9/11, the less...the less..."http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/13/rumsfeld-on-2006-election_n_101537.html

6 jul. 2008

SOLDIERS are to be deployed in Italian cities as Silvio Berlusconi, the prime minister, cracks down on crime as part of his government's new domestic security package. The troops – drawn from those who have served abroad – will patrol alongside regular state police and carabinieri paramilitary police.Mr Berlusconi came back to power two months ago after campaigning on a strong law and order manifesto.The cities earmarked for troop patrols are Rome, Milan, Naples, Florence, Genoa, Bologna, Turin, Palermo, Bari and Venice.http://news.scotsman.com/world/Berlusconi-puts-2500-troops-on.4187402.jp